Iran reports its first death from MERS virus

TEHRAN - Iran has suffered its first fatality from the Middle Eastern respiratory virus, its official news agency reported Thursday, a day after the first cases in Islamic Republic were publicized.

The IRNA news agency quoted Health Ministry official Mohammad Mahdi Gouya as saying the virus killed a 53-year-old woman in Kerman, a city in southeastern Iran. On Wednesday, the daily newspaper Hamshahri quoted Gouya as saying two sisters in Kerman contracted the virus.

"The women's immune system had with the disease due to chronic illness. (They were) unable to fight the virus." Gouya told IRNA. (AP)